Author
Topic: S/O of School Uniforms. Gym Suits (Read 23655 times)

The only gym uniform I actually remember was the one I wore in High School, which consisted of a pair of navy blue shorts, and a powder blue T-shirt. We also had to wear sneakers and and white (I think) socks, but those were ones of our own choosing. I liked it. It was easy to wear, and actually worked as a gym uniform, unlike some of the ones I've seen here.

The only gym uniform I actually remember was the one I wore in High School, which consisted of a pair of navy blue shorts, and a powder blue T-shirt. We also had to wear sneakers and and white (I think) socks, but those were ones of our own choosing. I liked it. It was easy to wear, and actually worked as a gym uniform, unlike some of the ones I've seen here.

As awkward as they look now, one piece gym suits made a certain amount of sense in the 1950s and 1960s. They were modest, neat and lady-like. The wearer didn't have to worry about a shirt riding up or pulling loose from a pair of shorts. Believe it or not, they were also considered 'sporty'. The shorts were very much like the 'boy short' popular in swimsuits of the time. You could also turn up the collar of the shirt to frame your face for a stylish 50s look. That was especially effective if you had a pixie haircut.

We groused about those suits all the time but they weren't that far from fashions of that era.

I think my junior school (age 6-11) had a school kit in the school colour (maroon! blech) but I have a feeling most people just wore white t-shirts or polos and whatever coloured shorts. I seem to remember they weren't allowed to have a football team logo on them though.

The first secondary school I attended was pretty simple - black bottoms (shorts or trackies) and then a white polo for indoor like badminton and gymnastics, and a black and white striped rugby top for outdoor things like hockey and football.

But then I moved. Oh, the horribleness of the new PE kit! It was all pretty standard stuff really. White polo shirt. Sweater and trackies with the school logo. Netball skirt. The only problem with it was the colour - it was a really, really horribly unflattering shade of sickly turquoise. Honestly, it could have been much worse - after reading this thread I'm very grateful I didn't have to put up with a gym onesie - but having gone from a fairly relaxed school to one where the PE kit was enforced very strictly, it was a bit of a culture shock. If you 'forgot' your kit, they had a bin bag full of spares for you! In all sizes! (It was at least clean...) One of the few times in my life having disproportionately small feet was actually useful - none of the spare trainers fitted me. Shame.

Ooooh, plus, at my second school they had their own pool. There was no 'school' swimming costume as such, but it was specified it had to be a one piece, plain, in dark blue. Which would have been fine - except finding a plain, navy, one piece swimming costume to fit a thirteen year old seemed to be like trying to find hen's teeth. Fortunately they didn't have spare costumes for people who 'forgot' theirs.

Logged

'A troth, by the way, is a small furry creature with fins, the offspring of a trout and a sloth. I often wonder what they saw in each other, but then I suppose the sloth, being upside down, would tend to have a different slant on things.'

White aertex shirts, navy knickers for gym, bare feet inside. Short navy wrap over skirt for outside, with socks and plimsolls. white or balck Freezing cold in the depth of an English winter, even with ones official school cardigan on top, and especially if you were not picked for the team, and spent most of your time hanging around on the sidelines.

Why don't school offer aerobics, or step classes, exercise classes or yoga? Then kids could do it indoors in the warm. And we were not all able to swarm up ropes or jump over vaulting horses.

Almost exactly the same uniform as you but in brown in my case. We also had a sweatshirt with the school crest on for very cold days but the games mistress didn't believe it was cold enough most of the time so we had to suffer.

This is largely responsible for my long held loathing of physical activity. For many years I associated exercise with being cold and miserable, having to shower with other people and being the last one picked to be on the team. I was nearly 30 before I discovered that it could be enjoyable when I got to pick the activity and it could be indoors.

Logged

And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.

Our grade school did not have locker rooms, so we had to wear these lovely things underneath our regular school clothes. The elastic around the legs tended to cut into the flesh of chubby 10-year-olds.

Is that a skirt? My junior high one was the same color but a onesie or what might politely be called a "romper". Since we had no locker rooms we had to wear those with skirts on gym days (2x weekly). Going to the restroom was a production.

The high school version looked like this but with a longer skirt. Same color.

One more thing: We were required to embroider our last names in block letters across the front of the uniform. Three or four inches high; I forget which.

High school required one semester of swimming for which the suits were supplied. One-piece without internal brassieres and in a horrible shade of maroon. Most of them had probably been used for at least three years and the straps were often falling down.

The other day I watched the 1976 version of Carrie and actually envied the gym uniforms in that film:

Our grade school did not have locker rooms, so we had to wear these lovely things underneath our regular school clothes. The elastic around the legs tended to cut into the flesh of chubby 10-year-olds.

Hey, that was my gym suit too from Sept 1966 to June 1972 (7th to 12th grades). Even to the royal blue color. We had to have our last name embroidered in white on the back of the suit and our first name above the pocket that was on the left side of the bodice.

I graduated from a public high school in the late 90's in the Chicagoland area. From 7th grade until senior year, the gym uniform for everyone in the district was a pair of navy blue shorts with the district number in gold and a reversible navy blue/gold t-shirt. Gym shoes and socks were required, but I'm pretty sure they didn't care what color anything was. The shoes couldn't have black soles, but that was it. The shirts were reversible for when we played team sports. We were allowed to wear sweatshirts/pants when it was cold out and we could wear our own swimsuit (one piece) for swimming. When we did a tumbling/wrestling unit, we were allowed spandex shorts under the gym shorts. The gym uniform pieces were a cotton blend--not too horrible as far as gym clothes go.

In Junior and Senior year, students who played sports could waive out of gym and that's exactly what I did.

If a student didn't bring their own gym clothes, they had to wear a jersey knit zippered onesie, with stripes. Hideous thing.

That was the gym uniform my sophmore year! (10 of 12). Hideous barely covers it - I have a long torso for my height. The blasted shirt would have come untucked if it hadn't been sewn to the shorts and it was very uncomfortable if I raised my arms too much (seam in a bad location). I was so glad they changed to shorts and a shirt the next year......

we had those! White and blue stripped top with attached blue shorts. Ugly. part way through hs they changed the rules so the girls could wear gym shorts and t-shirts or sweatshirts just like the boys did. May have been title VII(?). Graduated in 82.

My middle school had those same uniforms. Some wise student a year or two older than me petitioned the school to allow girls to be able to wear the boys' uniform. The boys' uniform was a white T-shirt which the school name and a place to write your name with a permanent marker and black shorts. No girl bought the girls' uniform. I am short-waisted so the crotch would have been at my knees. My sister was three years older and had to suffer with that girls' uniform. I graduated from high school in 1990.

No uniforms in elementary school. In middle school and high school, the girls in the years ahead of me had to wear the knit onesie, ugly green on the bottom with green and cream? Stripes on top. The year I went into middle school (6th grade) was the first year they allowed the girls to wear the same outfit as the boys. White t-shirt, dark green pants, both with the school logo on them. Oddly enough, no girl chose to get the old girls' uniform .

Eighth and ninth grade, we had to take swimming. We were also required to wear the school-supplied swimming suits. They had no spandex in them, so no stretch. Every girl knew to bring something to cinch the straps together, otherwise they slipped right off.

I sometime felt that forcing teenagers to take swimming was akin to psychological torture, but then forcing them to wear a school supplied swimmsuit of the one size fits no-one variety, should be against Geneva conventions.